Danny Boy (Liquid State)
by Sgt. Griff
Summary: All we ever do is float around in our world. Going wherever the current takes us. So what happens when one of us makes a stir, jostles us about? Anything can happen in a world without walls, without laws, without the endless set of guidelines to follow. In a liquid state, we can be anything. Would be rated MA (If I could) because it's verrrrry Gory.
1. Doctor Who Complex

…

Breath. A whisper in the silent dark.

Life.

******DANIEL**

* * *

He stumbles and, according to sod's most accurate law, slips and falls in his own dripping puddles of black discharge. Cracking a newly formed head against black granite. He clutches his hands to his face, laughing and crying at his own failure. To be fair it wasn't exactly the best start to a less than happy life, so you can see why he'd be crying.

'Ack.'

Lifting himself with one hand, a surprisingly strong hand, with fingers to boot, he looks around at his surroundings, noting the eerie green text surrounding him, repeating with neither fail nor (That's right, nor) change. Terribly boring. To be honest, but when you've just been born and have no idea where you are, you kinda don't give two shits about much at all.

Gradually his eyes adjusted, and the enormity of his situation dawns upon his freshly made brain.

'Oh no.'

He looked at his hands. Dripping with black gunk, slowly revealing the pale flesh beneath.

'Oh no.'

He gets up from his seated position, slipping slightly on the puddle, and reaches forward, touching the letters. They warp and frazzle beneath his fingers, and heat overcomes his body.

'Not this shit again.' he groaned, clutching his face in despair. 'FUCK YOU GRIFF! FUCK YOU!'

He screams for an age, large, bestial yells. The embodiment of him letting anger out until he's left with only pain. To this, he collapses, with a small crack, onto the ground.

Only when he's finished does Akagi look down from her desk. The glass slightly distorts her view but nonetheless the image of the boy flapping his hands up and down and shaking his head, shaking away a painful injury while crawling about, yelling at some unknown being was still clear as daylight.

But being two thousand metres below ground, there wasn't much daylight.

'It appears he's woken up.' She noted to Gendo, who sat, scrawling notes in his corner of the shabby office room. Alas there was no movement visible through the dark and dank smelling atmosphere of the room, easily large enough for twenty people, instead holding two. After it was obviously he would continue to fail to reply she piped up again, this time the boy's cries overrode hers.

'OH GOD THE UNIMAGINABLE AGONY! Oh my face! IT BURRRNS!'

She sighed. Instead of talking through the cleverly placed narrative devices she opted to flash a message up on Gendo's monitor.

A tapping, a small flick, a slight snigger, and the words HE'S AWAKE, in big, classic, retro letters flicks up on his display.

She turned to her desk just in time to hear Gendo flap about on his, pushing off of it, spilling papers to the floor in the process, and gliding across the room's cluttered floor, flooded with books on biological engineering, to the window on his favourite invention. Scattering the light on his white shirt and briefly illuminating the cave like space. The spinny chair sang beneath him, humming freely until with an abrupt clunk, he stopped himself against the window, staring with wide eyes down at the writhing boy.

'OH MY HEAD. OH GOD.'

'Hm.' He paused. Letting the fact flow over him. 'Indeed he has.' Nothing. A pause. 'Set up the proto Unit, the "Broken" one, and send him away.'

Akagi nodded, times like this she really liked that her daughter did not work with her.

* * *

**End Prologue**

* * *

**Start Chapter One - The Doctor Who Complex**

* * *

Ugh. So do you ever feel like your life keeps repeating? Yeah well, My life does. Literally. Just take a look at that prologue. Looks like some goddam author doesn't want his first Fanfic to go to waste and keeps, fuckin, bringing me back again and again for another round of shittily written and repetitive stories, thus we get this chapter's name.

Okay.

Okay.

Get a grip. Daniel, breeeatthe...

In out, in out.

Heh, sounds like my Friday Night.

*Slap*

'Oh fuck off Asuka.'

Anyway, this is it, the third, and hopefully last time I ever grace this Godforsaken planet. You know what they say, third time's the charm. ;)

Daniel Out.

* * *

I've always wanted to die, not commit suicide and take the one way road to faggot town, but just try and try for something so hard that it kills me. So I tried and tried and sometimes, sometimes my wish came true, wether I died fending off Mass Production Evas from a bunch of untrained 14 year olds. Oh wait. I was an untrained 14 year old. Ha ha, not funny. Sometimes weird shit happened, being transported to other dimensions, fucking someone, going home, they follow me, turns out they're pregnant and I'm gonna be a father, but then she dies by being ripped apart by a bunch of Harpy looking things. But still, I don't die. I once travelled around the world tracking down Angels just to be the sole survivor of eight pilots.

Eight of them!

I had a love triangle going on!

So, in brief I never seem to be able to die, which brings us to now, the day I die.

* * *

'Hng.'

Not a 'hng' like Hnnnnnggg... boner, but the hng of a pain so great, a torment and agony so indescribable it would've killed a man. A pain more intense than the feeling of chewing five gum.

Electricity seemed to crackle and expand out from me, synchronised with the pulse of my pain. Small blue orbs blowing out and fading away with big shoots of light whip out from my chest as I struggle to hold in the apocalypse.

'Ck-'

And then the screaming, the endless, deathful roar of his borrowed Eva.

'Gaaahh!'

The beast around me writhes, four white winged creatures circle, each bearing down slower and slower upon the two massive demonic growths spurting from the back of the armoured monster.

The sizzle and crackle as a superheated extradimensional blade forged from the souls of demons makes light work of a thousand tonnes of armour. I can't take it, I can't hold it in much longer.

With a sigh of dreaded relief, I let go.

Then a sickening crunch and the world goes black.

My mind spirals, I see god, whoever it is, I see death, I know all, Nirvana is me. And yet I trip as I run towards the light, and my mind stops spinning, but drops into a dead fall.

* * *

Now if we were to continue this little paragraph we'd find it loops back around to the first paragraph.

That's my life, even when I die, I just come back again for more. And again the story line loops off into something more convoluted and ridiculous than before, unfortunately I get the feeling that pretty soon it'll include some stupid lemon storyline. That's why this has to be the last time, this is the doctor who complex.

I love Doctor Who.

But for artistic value's sake, I can't die again.

* * *

'So this is it.'

Grey light illuminated the small chamber.

With a sickening thud, that was it.

**End Chapter**


	2. Acrostic Epic

A single lump of spherical rock. Swirling around the sun. Just one sun amongst millions of others in the galaxy. Just one galaxy amongst millions of others in the universe, and possibly, just one universe amongst an infinite amount of others. Beyond that, who knows.

This rather discontented rock sat rock-like, staring, stone-cold, out at the other big and small rocks and at the big glowing rock in the middle. Surrounded by what it assumed to be a very large, very black, and very empty rock. It wondered in its stony isolation why it couldn't be a bigger rock or a gas rock, or maybe a big glowing rock like the one in the middle of all the other rocks. But then it realised what this rock had.

Finding that it had life, it relaxed, letting out millions of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The dinosaurs went extinct. It had a multitude of again what it assumed to be little, fleshy rocks covering its rough and rocky ass, and its slippery face, rolling across its stony jaw and its sea-blue eyes, defying laws of nature and not gathering moss.

Inevitably, with life came death. And eventually the little rocks dissolved back into the big rock in a never ending cycle.

Earth was a world of activity, never ending, always changing. Like the backside of an incontinent elephant.

Love would create more life, war would end it. The law of averages dictated this.

Daniel scratched his shoulder, specifically his left one, it itched.

* * *

******DANNY-BOY**

* * *

**CHAPTER TWO- Acrostic Epic** (A Never Glorified End to Life And The Terrible Attributes Complimenting Killers)

* * *

**DATE-13.07.15 TIME-1423 HOURS**

* * *

_The target was sighted today just outside of Japanese water, at approx.1342 hours ,it was tracked by geostationary satellites until, fourteen minutes later, at 1356 hours, the target's presence was lost. Around four kilometres away from the western coast. Further sonar and visual searches have come up fruitless. Current maps were overlaid on the satellite image, displaying infrastructure, geographic features, and depth maps. No anomalies were found. For all intents and purposes the target has disappeared._

'Well that was a whole lot of nothing.'

Truth be told, it was, even after giving the majority of NERV staff minor heart attacks -the resultant seismic force of which killed Maya's dog (a fact she'd find out to a great deal of her own distress later)- things had quieted down, and now the low hum of a bored crowd was all that could be heard. Pages of comic books turning, the hum of an air guitar. Maya was, oblivious to the tragedy, humming quite happily to herself, she'd found someone special, after years of fruitless searching she'd come to turns with herself, and was more secure than ever, but of course all of this would turn out to be worthless when she found her dog lying, sprawled on its side, on the floor, an expression resulting from infinite hilarity and endless terror spread across its face.

'Yeah well…' it was everybody's favourite bottle blonde scientist, 'we can't just let things like that go unnoticed, chances are in the next hour it'll pop back up on radar and there'll be nothing we can do but mobilise. Until then…' a sigh, 'we wait.'

It had been a long morning, and now that was getting to them. The room was dim, in battle stations. The smell of sweat would invade one's nostrils without remorse, fighting upwards through hair and snot to give you a really, really bad surprise were you to walk into the room, and the silence was both awkward and cutting. The worst kind.

Misato fidgeted. Spilling coffee. Her day had been longer than the others, what with her pulling an all nighter the night beforehand, all for paper work (she would later admit it to be the scorn of everybody).

More fidgeting, until, like a torrent of water released from a flood gate of inhibitions she exploded.

'Ack! I can't take it!' She groaned, a loud groan, slamming her coffee down on the desk before her, almost dismounting from her chair in the process. The entire terminal went silent, all holding their breath in silent anticipation of her next move.

Akagi sighed. 'Well then, why don't you so something about it.'

A barely held 'Ooooh.' Came from the eastern wing of the building. The two women eyed each other, baring down with iron wills. The heat of their battle briefly caught the sweat soaked air alight. Before they separated looks.

'Somebody, I have an idea. Grab me the blueprints for civil infrastructure predating 2nd impact.'

The sheer scale of indecision in that moment would've been the epitome of a large country's government had it been granted terra firma and, of course, been a country.

'Uh.' Maya uttered.

'Chop chop!'

'Yes ma'am! Right away!'

To this Misato folded her arms, smiling triumphantly at her success.

Akagi risked a glance over at the raven haired lady, waiting for her to catch her eye. She did, and in that moment she shot through more words than that woman could have said in a day, in a single, blazing glare, of course she was justified in her stance; Unit 00 was essentially still just a puddle of metallic goop from the week before. And while Unit 01 had received an almost unfair amount of extensive repairs to vital points that had been severely damaged, it was still far from ready, with a quarter of the combat system too damaged to function beyond typical 'position the target in the centre and pull the trigger' tactics. She feared the fact that if they were to find the position of the Angel they'd have to send in one ill-prepared Eva Unit against an unknown enemy. But the alternative…

_We'd have to get the Pacific branch to…_

She shuddered at the thought and turned away, in time to see Misato return the glance, unlike before her glance said nothing but 'I really need a drink'.

Maya returned with the map, an old paper thing, and attempted to lay it over the display in front of her. Eventually, after about a minute of fumbling, she got everything lined up. She watched with glee as the paper clipped onto the edge of the screen.

'Bugger me.'

The result was astounding, almost too good to be true; Spread through the digital display was the line of the Angel's path, which according to the old map ended in the middle of an old suburban area, not worth much back then, but now it proved itself priceless, more specifically, its investment was made in the middle of an entrance to a subway tunnel.

'Fuckin bingo.' Mumbled Misato, stabbing at the blueprint roughly with her middle finger, causing Maya to fumble and drop the map across the work bench. 'That's where we go. Commander…' she spun around, 'I have your permission?'

Maya picked up the map, slowly inspecting the hole made in the centre of it. A frown crossed her face.

Gendo nodded. Slowly.

Sloooooowly…

Slower than a retarded snail. Slower than a snail with no slime. Slower than some other snail remark, hey, I really hate snails, I mean, if they would just leave my fucking garden alone I'd be fine but noooo… they just have to eat everything. Anyway- what? I'm not bitter.

Not. At. All.

'All right.' Misato clapped her hands and called together the staff members.

Several minutes passed, as the combat staff got into position and the typical logistics advisors organized dive teams to scout the location of the Angel. The room was once against filled with the clatter of activity.

As the hum reached a crescendo, and individual chatter was drowned out, Gendo spoke up.

'Akagi.'

The scientist turned to the voice. That of the Commander.

'Yes?' She said it with a smirk on her face and a mocking in her voice.

'If we lose contact with Unit 01. Make the call. Under no one else's authority. The UN will not be informed of the location of the Angel or the fact in itself that the Angel still exists. Understood?'

'Yessir.'

Misato looked up.

She saw Ritsuko turn away. But nothing more.

Suspicion sparked. Fanned by the wind of distrust.

She sipped her coffee.

* * *

**DATE-14.07.15 TIME-0743 HOURS**

* * *

_ Dive teams one and two both confirmed the existence of a large tunnel network beneath Tokyo-3, the original fears of size differentiations and the ability of Eva to enter the system have been dismissed, due to a 718% increase (based off of old civil engineering reports) in the tunnel system's size, as a result of accelerated erosion. The cause of this erosion has not been confirmed but it is believed to be of Angelic origin._

The bridge was still sweaty and dank, stilly smelly and dark. But it was significantly less full and crowded. Barely four people remained from the earlier fifty or so. It was even harder to see now, only individual lamps illuminated the space.

'That's it then.' One more overnight shift later and Misato was still at her job. Checking over everything with everyone and making sure the operation would go without a hitch. The lamp on her desk flickered as she powered up her mic.

'We are good to go. Shinji.'

On the main screen the boy looked towards her.

'You're good.' She said, when it became clear he hadn't heard. 'We're going now.'

'Yes ma'am.' He sighed.

Once more into the abyss.

The entry plug shuddered briefly as a tug boat began to haul the robot out to sea, carrying it on a massive barge. Then, with a plunge, in broad, speckled daylight, on a magnificent cloudless day, Eva Unit 01 plunged into the depths of an offshore cave.

Shinji checked the time as he stepped into the gargantuan air bubble.

0750.

The match was set. He nodded, looking around. The sphere of oxygen surrounded a large plateau, built presumably of something stronger than concrete. It was barely light enough to make out the edge of the blue tinged ground. He flicked on his lights, casting round patches of visibility onto the ground. The cave began right in front of him, elevated from the plateau.

Taking tentative, pounding steps he descended.

He continued like this into the massive system. His steps resounding and echoing like drum beats at a bad stadium. Gradually his steps became less tentative, and he lifted his head, lifting his guard with it. After five minutes he stopped, staring at a dead end.

'It's a dead end...' He sighed.

'Shinji!'

'Huh-'

There was a flash of pure black and red on his monitor, before all hell broke loose.

* * *

'Shinji!'

No response. It'd been too quick. There'd been a flash of red on the boy's displays and then nothing, for the past ten seconds no one had breathed as the sounds of what they assumed to be an epic battle raged. The internal feed up on main screen showed the darkness with brief streaks of red. Finally, the room let out a breath. The flashes of red had stopped, replaced with a single affirmative word.

'Dead.'

The atmosphere was stagnant with adrenaline. His chest was heaving, his sweat ran into the LCL.

'Shinji, don't trust it, hit the core. You know this.'

The prog. Knife was audible as it slipped out from Eva's shoulder.

'Yes ma'am.'

He breathed out. The Angel lay before him, its core exposed to the world. This was the first time Shinji'd gotten a good look at it.

He gasped.

It was a mass of black tentacles, writhing about a bright red core. They rippled and recoiled as he drew the knife near, exposing the core. He stopped, hesitating. Could it be...?

However all doubt was dispelled. He plunged his knife into the red.

There was blast. A scream like the death cry of a cat. A large red pang on the screen as the left arm of the Eva was severed from its body.

And then nothing.

* * *

**DATE-14.07.15 TIME-0802 HOURS**

* * *

The call was made.

Electrons shot through the sky, arcing between cell towers, hitting satellites, bounding through space, to rest on a small island in the Pacific.

Daniel's shoulder was getting rather itchy at this point, he couldn't stop itching, scratching at his shoulder, rubbing the skin beneath his clothing raw with his frenzied efforts to relieve the irritation.

His phone rang.

In such a rural, forested environment, it was an odd sound to head. And he looked at it, puzzled.

_What is it?_ Sung his paranoid android friend, peaking over Daniel's shoulder at his phone, this was the virgin call on that particular block of plastic and shiny metal. _Pizza delivery?_

Daniel looked in typical contrary fashion back over his shoulder, the thing loomed about fifty metres above him, blocking out the sky and the clouds that covered it. Big red eyes illuminated the white alloys of the humanoid. He may have been scared, if he wasn't him. Looking down he realised that the foot of the thing was still stripped bare of any metal, and outside the fleshy appendage a ramshackle stall sat, the words Free Pizza (sort of) spray painted haphazardly across the front. This was something they'd intended to fix after they realised that NERV paid them. I mean, who knew why they'd opened a pizza "shop" in the middle of the forest, but they did receive orders quite frequently, and those who ordered often never came back. Or when they did they arrived either naked or with their pants severely soiled.

But hey, a boy's gotta eat something. Or at least he did.

'Uh. Uh- What do we do? How do we? Uh- Help?'

He shifted uncomfortably.

_Dude! I have no idea!_

'How do I answer?!' His face was filled with anxiety, stress, even fear at the vibration and lights resonating from this interesting electronic rectangle.

The birds around continued to tweet, accenting the crickets in the trees. They were almost mocking the duo.

_Press the button! Press it!_

Trees fell, small beings were crushed as the massive white thing shifted its weight.

'What button?!'

_There's only one button!_

The ground began to shake. As the enormous monstrositationally gargantunormous situation crashed to the Earth in an explosion too bigantuan to even see the sky.

'Hm? Oh.'

-beep-

'Sup?'

'Get. Over. Here. Now.'

'Where's here?'

-click-

'Oh. Okay then.'

_Cough_.

'What?'

The Freud Android was holding out his hand. An international map was displayed in the typical spray painted fashion from a year before. Japan was clearly marked.

'Oh.' He stopped, placing his finger on his chin, like in the movies, 'So it's already begun?'

_He gave you fourteen years dude._

The arrow of time stopped briefly, entropy ceased, the laws of natures froze and the light held its sparkly breath. The big circle rock orbiting the big glowing rock stopped to think for a second. The fourth wall was shattered.

'Good point.'

The world continued as normal.

'So how exactly do we get to Japan?'

_Dude I dunno, I wasn't born with a brain. I just stole one._

__

* * *

'Akagi.'

If the activity had crescendoed before, now it was anarchy, people running about, some with scissors. People shouting. People doing things that seemed panicked and a very good idea at the time.

'Yes commander?'

She looked up at him through a red lit haze.

'The call has been made?'

'Yes commander.'

His hands became slightly more pensive.

No turning back now.

'When should he be here?'

'We're not sure.'

'Oh I'm sure we don't need to worry.'

* * *

They didn't.

Had an omnipresent and omnipotent being been at hand to witness this particular event, he would've seen a massive dust cloud, mushroom shaped in the typical cataclysmic style of nuclear warfare erupting forth, like the pus ejected from a swollen facial blemish, from the parched ground beneath. Emanating laughter would've been heard, as well as the inherent screaming as atoms were torn apart to make way for the participants of this monstrosity. It was a scene from hell.

A small white figure could be seen among the swirling carnage. Crackling and spitting lightning from its very presence.

**THEY'D RELEASED A DEMON UNTO THE ANGELS OF EARTH.**

With a pleasant smile, the omnipresent being looked below at his work. He clapped his hands together in recognition of his efforts. The show would be magnificent.

* * *

DATE-14.07.15 TIME-0816 HOURS

* * *

'So this is him?'

The display showed all. The destruction, the devastation erupting from his very presence.

Akagi smiled slightly, like an inventor admiring his doomsday device. The redness lit her face hellishly and striking resemblance to an infernal beast could be made.

'Yes.'

* * *

**END**


	3. Now We Can Start

Crickets ceased to chirp. Heightening the suspenseful atmosphere that had descended. Tokyo-3 appeared to hold its breath as a being emerged from the chaotic malstrom of the storm. The sun hung low in the sky, lighting up the scene. It made its way into Daniel's eyes, and he recoiled, blocking it with his hand. An arm ten meters long instead came up. Glinting white.

The dust was still swirling, entrapping itself in the creases in the Eva's armor, crusting itself in the eye holes. Wind howled, but gradually the storm died down, and all was silent.

'Wow.'

Daniel looked out.

'That was interesting.

He turned his gaze down, already the sun was illuminating the swarm of NERV agents that surrounded the monster.

Akagi had arrived only a few minutes prior, and had briefed Daniel.

He would receive no escort, no assistance.

This operation would not be recorded.

Those were the commands sent out from Gendo, those were the commands she'd followed to the letter.

The leg of the giant groaned, before lifting clumsily, Daniel and Eva stomped off.

'That's that sorted.' She sighed, watching them dip below the horizon. Her voice reeked of dark certainty. And it smelled terrible.

* * *

_Chaeriel turned what could be considered its gaze upwards in the black gloom, listening with long strands of black to the ground. It narrowed its spectrum, feeling around quicker, shortening its radius before dropping lower to the ground and sending tendrils upwards to the roof._

_It heard pounding. Before light flooded its chasm._

_All it knew was pain. All it could do was hurt._

_Hurt._

_Hurt._

_The purple one lay before it, the white one stood gazing down at it._

_Anger and hurt, all it knew._

_Chaeriel exploded._

* * *

Lights flashed about him, flashing in the endless black, the chasm of lightless hell; it was all anyone could see. All anyone could be, it was the thing that took away I from us and made you from we. His light flickered and he was left to his senses.

'Shit-' Daniel choked out, dodging in behind a pillar of basalt. In his right hand his prog knife was poised, in his left he dragged the lifeless and limbless form of Unit 01 to safety. A black rod shot past, groping like an enraged cobra in the darkness, but with twice the flexibility and who knows how many times the strength. It had touched him once, and the feeling he'd had…

_Cold… so cold_

Like the touch of death, unwelcoming death, Death that didn't want you at all but needed you to pay its rent, kind of Death.

'Fuck.'

He gritted his death, holding the chest of Eva in, keeping it out of the path of the thing before it could do more damage. His Comm. Link had been severed, he was on his own, again, not that it made much of a difference. 'Okay... okay...' He whispered, throwing the purple body of the main unit out into the fray. Almost at once a thousand black tentacles shot out at it. Daniel's eyes widened at what he'd done, he was supposed to keep him alive.

The purple body crumpled into the wall, AT field protecting the beast –just- from the death awaiting her.

'Aw bugger.'

_Not until all attention is on him…_

The next seconds that passed felt like months, and his senses slowed to a halt, his nostrils flaring in the stagnation.

He jumped out, narrowly avoiding a shot of blackness, before hacking his way through the shit fest of nothing to get to Unit 01; he kicked it away in a typically Daniel manner, watching it slide down the massive corridors. Soon it was just he and the Angel.

'All right.'

* * *

Echoes bounced out of the mouth of the cave, hitting the dive team almost as hard as the body of Unit 01 had. They were screams, pure, agonized, painful screams, full of anguish and brimming with the endless torment of an eternal being rendered useless. Four minutes later Daniel emerged, holding up a shiny red orb.

The water fell barely five metres from his face; the wonder of nature was indeed a wonder, somehow retaining a full oxygen atmosphere while completely submerged, a wonder of Angelic Origin, which with the destruction of its creator would soon fall to nature.

'Well there's your problem.' He sighed. Crushing the orb like a piece of badly dried out cheese. For the first time in fourteen years his friend powered down, and he ejected. Business like, he wrenched open the hatch, and saw the orb of oxygen as he had before. The droid lent down, and he bounded off.

Shortly before fainting.

* * *

**DANNY BOY**

**Chapter Three- Now We Can Start**

* * *

'It seems Europe has begun transfer if Unit 02, in response to yesterday's event.'

Gendo looked up briefly, while this did not entirely surprise him the pang of powerlessness coursed through him. No one had ordered such a thing. 'Really.' The chess set clattered with his move, 'It seems NERV Europe is operating without a head now, isn't it. When are they due in port?'

'Two days from now.'

'Good.' Mused the chap in the spectacles.

'I'm not sure this fits in with the old men's scenario.'

The answer was not spoken, as Gendo slumped, sighing, dropping his pen in frustration, and placing a tensed hand upon his forehead, it was arguably the most human he'd been seen to be in years.

'Khozo, it must be said, the scenario's gone to shit.'

_But it's not too far to save it._

* * *

_Wedged, stuck between two rocks, slowly being crushed, the life crushed out of him. Slowly being squeezed of all energy._

_Stuck in the middle, he let out one last yell._

* * *

Daniel came to rather abruptly, banging his head on the low ceiling. Somehow he'd been transferred into a medical helicopter, and now he was flying over the ocean. Where he was, he could only guess, but judging by the direction of sunlight against the clock on the wall, and the air currents rocking the helicopter, as well as the massive compass displayed rather tackily on the wall to his left, he knew he wasn't heading towards Japan's shore. Daring to stick his head out from the bed, as if it might get chopped off by the rotors (which were outside) he peaked out the window.

The site almost made him gasp.

Twenty-four smudges of grey paint floating on a great canvas of Blue and white specks, at least, that's what it looked like from this height. The view would've been spectacular, had it not been obstructed by a block of green steel, rudely interrupting the sight like a spike shooting through a fingernail, but four times easier to watch.

Getting up, Daniel crept from the cramped medical cabin, and took a seat in the main partition.

The inside of the cabin was filled to the brim with emptiness; Misato was sitting up front, the pilot of this single aircraft sitting beside her. Daniel now, with his excited hopes severely dashed, sat dejectedly in the back, still dressed in his plugsuit, there'd been no time to change, not that he'd had any clothes in the first place. His hands twitched on his knees, drumming out a beat of endless repetition. Accompanied only by a whistle of longing, longing after his destroyed dreams.

The air swirled, leather groaned. Misato slumped, she'd intended it to be a relaxing trip, fun for Shinji, instead he'd been mauled and had had an unconscious boy placed in his stead. An unfortunate circumstance.

Daniel sat up, stopping his bodily music, instead starting to speak.

'So…'

'Yeah?'

'Nevermind.'

Katsuragi let out an audible sigh; it'd be a long journey.

A long journey indeed

Daniel looked at his arm, a small patch of black was beginning to spread from where the Angel had touched him and sliced through the nerve connections to rip the plug suit.

'Interesting.'

'What?

'Nothing.'

Misato sighed, as the copter touched down upon steely grey paneling. The endless trip, it would seem, had come to an end.

Daniel got out first, the door held wide open by a burly man of at least six and a half feet. The sunlight served to blind him, and he stumbled, only to be grabbed and held up at 45 degrees by the same man.

'Uh. Thanks.'

Misato was next to get out, ducking warily under the rotors, she shielded her eyes, before looking around the deck. It was a blazingly hot afternoon, and she yearned for refreshments. So grabbing Daniel she went off, looking for the cafeteria.

* * *

'How's he doing?'

Akagi looked over at Maya, no questions were asked, and she brought up the feed form his room, although Maya could have done it herself, who knew why she hadn't.

The good doctor examined the screen briefly.

'He's fine, the major lacerations are healing… and… that's about it.' She smiled, a smile of something indiscernible, 'should wake up any minute now.'

Maya let out a sigh. 'That's good.'

Ritsuko squinted against the light.

_Maybe not._

* * *

'So who's this then?'

The cafeteria had been previously void of any people save Misato and Daniel, who'd shared a very awkward fifteen minutes together, each prefering to stuff their face with terrible food rather than engage in human conversation. Misato was still wary of the pilot who'd appeared from nowhere and saved the day, like some comic book hero, but Daniel was just wary of people in general. Now they both found a third person in their midst, a young, fiery redhead.

'Hm?'

Daniel would later have to admit that the experience of having a single, sharpened nail pressed into his forehead with an application of much pressure, was easily the most painful in his life. He winced, as a red globule of liquid rolled into his eye, obscuring his view down her dress.

'Ouch.' He said, somehow apathetic to his own pain.

'Hmm…' She seemed a tad disappointed, 'you're not exactly what I expected...'

'Asuka, I think that's quite enough.'

Misato knocked away her arm, then motioned towards Daniel.'

'This is…'

'Daniel,' said the boy known as Daniel.

_Daniel._

'Daniel,'

_Daniel_

'Not the third child?' She seemed surprised, you could tell, because there was a big sign saying surprised and an ethereal exclamation mark above her forehead, 'who is he then?'

_Daniel, come._

Daniel, for that moment, felt as though he no longer was needed. And thus he slipped away, leaving the two females to their own devices. A classic mistake, but one made no less.

Misato shrugged.

'He arrived a few days back. Other than that, nothing.'

'Nothing.'

'Yup. Daniel?' Nothing. 'Daniel?' But alas, for he was nowhere to be seen. 'Bugger'

* * *

Daniel was walking, stumbling rather, lurching from side to side as the ship rolled beneath him. 'Urgh...' he moaned. 'What a life.' Each footstep left a small patch of cool behind him, the steel sheltered briefly from the burning sun. He knew not where he was going, only that he was going somewhere important. His head ached, as he stumbled across the deck, watching with intent as he walked the devil's fires rising up from the ground. Eventually he came to a large yellow sheet, and, not knowing what he was doing, he snuck under.

Two piercing eyes watched from afar.

'What is he doing...?'

Finally, Daniel let out a torrent of vomit, and suddenly he was standing = at the base of a red Giant's head, feeling waves of mental heat crashing down upon him in his own ocean of searing white noise.

_Come closer…_

The comfort of the fire against his cold, it beckoned, the strength he could feel, it called, the voice in his head told him to go forth, and soon he was touching the skin of the thing, feeling the cool, dry metal heat slowly beneath his fingers. Curiosity and attraction overcame him; soon he was crawling up the side, hands and feet stuck to the metal by seemingly nothing.

'Wow…'

When he got back to Japan he'd have to buy some paint, he mused.

Before he knew it, he was standing atop the giant. he saw the entire thing, fifty metres in length, drenched in water, gleaming with unseen light. With a hiss, the entry plug shot out, his impulses sent a foot forward, before his brain could stop it.

'This is wrong,' he muttered, and left.

_Aw fuck._

* * *

'Nice of you to show up.'

To say Daniel looked sheepish would be an understatement, he was positively mortified in his current position, staring at the ground, hair falling down in individual locks over his eyes. The entire thing was a mess. Asuka tutted away to his left, looking at him with a mixture of contempt and weariness.

'Sorry ma'am.' He uttered.

'Great. Now that we've that out of the way, we need to go see the ship's captain.' She paused, placing a thoughtful finger on her chin, 'actually, I'm the one who needs to go; you can stay here and talk to Asuka. Don't. Go. Anywhere.'

With that the raven headed mistress turned on her heel, and left the scene, leaving an awkward pairing of two young people. Daniel scratched himself, the clothes he'd been given were military regulation, and as such were of a spiffing quality, somehow infuriating and enraging at the same time, a mixture of frustration and anguish. Asuka, he'd noticed, was still wearing her yellow sundress, however out of date it was.

_And the neck ring..._

Allowing himself a little chuckle, he started walking towards the edge of the deck, looking for a railing to lean on. Soon he found his target and fell forward, forgetting the redheaded lass in a matter of seconds, instead letting the cool seabreeze fill the empty space in his head.

Of course this momentary bliss didn't last for much longer as he felt a familiar nail press against the back of his skull, and the all too present warm feeling as blood trickled from the wound.

Needless to say he had very frail skin.

'_You..._' He heard. Bitter and twisted in his ear drums. 'Don't think I don't know what you were doing.'

'Eek.' Daniel squeaked.

'Just stay _away _from me and my Eva. Okay?' She hissed. Spitting the words into his ear, like a snake spitting venom into the neck of its victim. 'Or...'

She cracked her other set of knuckles, with Daniel struggling not to laugh at her threat.

'There'll be trouble.'

Daniel stopped struggling, the humour had gone, and the way she'd said it...

_Oh dude, screw that._

'-Kay.' He coughed. The nail exited his head.

'Good.'

She walked away.

* * *

I stayed there for much of the night, until Misato came out to look for me, it wasn't for any particular reason; I just couldn't be bothered going inside, it was enough. For when I was sitting there, letting salt saturated air fill my lungs, letting specks of water sting my eyes; letting the world go on without me, I was free.

_Was_.

As with all good things the moment passed and I heard a voice call out from behind me, gruff, low, stagnant, easily American,

'Oi! Fuck are you doing out here this late!?' It said.

To say I was frightened would be an understatement, I was terrified, the men were big dudes, and I could probably expect a thrashing in the next few seconds (Oh shut it, I'm not that big a guy). I turned around slowly.

'Oh, sorry ma'am, I'll let you go on.'

It would only strike me later when Katsuragi dragged me to my quarters what he'd said. Only when the hull was groaning in my ears, and the waves crashing in my mind did I hear the sentence play over again.

_Ma'am? What the hell?_

Only then did I hear the hum one more. Ever familiar, only then did true fear grip me.

_ANGEL._

Over and over again.

_Angel._

_Angel._

If my deductions were correct, and they quite often were, then there was an Angel nearby, of course, being the brainy man I am, it was nay but a few seconds until a clang rocked the ship. I yawned, rolling out of bed, stumbling across the room to grab my tights (or whatever they're called). 'Probably an Angel.' My pants were down, and I had just begun removing the grey scraps of starch they called underwear when I heard a regretfully familiar voice from the doorway.

'Hey-'

'Hm?'

I looked over, ceasing my undressing, the girl, Asuka, was there, standing with her hands braced against the doorway, dressed in a night shift that may have been considered a little too mature in a former age, but in a world of chaos, fuck it (and other things, wink wink, nudge nudge, nudge is as good as a wink to a blind man, know what I'm saying. Sexually).

'What?'

'Get out here. Lemme show you something.'

'Fuh... Fine.'

'No! Get up now! And grab that miserable excuse for a plugsuit as well,'

_Oh. So it's called a plugsuit now_?

* * *

Of course, from there you can only imagine what happened, in the next five minutes I was beaten, bruised, forced into uncomfortable positions, yelled at, tortured, you name it, it happened. All that before I'd even started fighting the goddam Angel. Never mind having to follow her across slick floors and freezing concrete, it was a strange experience in itself to be placed in the hands of one so... unique, but meh. Anything goes I guess.

For the second time, the screens around us flickered red, displaying ERROR repeatedly.

'Stop thinking in Japanese!'

'I'm not thinking in Japanese, dolt,' was all I managed, before I got a fist to my face for my troubles.

She turned the metaphorical key in the metaphorical slot and the metaphorical engine roared to life, amazingly still intact. There were no voices this time, just a whir, a slow turning over of the core. The relaxing hum of a gargantuan's thoughts making their way in incomprehensible waves to you.

What happened next was not expected.

It started as some kind of roar, nothing more than a slight amplification of the previous hum, but soon the entire machine began rocking, stirring, out of control. The screens went black and we were plunged into darkness.

'Now what?' Even in the darkness, I saw her turn her face to me. 'You muppet.'

'Suit yourself,' I mumbled, hanging on to the back of the seat for dear life. This seemed to have the desired effect and she finally did shut up.

The rocking began again, and Eva Unit 02 took flight.

* * *

Had the following scene not been eradicated from all databases and UN depositories around the world by an unknown assailant, it would've probably been the most badass piece of footage ever found, so incredible that the sheer force of its badassery blew the head off of the first person who saw it, caused two earthquakes, a nuclear meltdown in the newly rebuilt NERV HQ, four tsunamis, and five terrorism attacks, don't ask how, it just _did._ Unfortunately the footage was deleted from the points between the start and finish of this phenomenon, but what was not deleted was the moments following, so it's kind of bittersweet.

'Holy shit what.' I gasped, somehow we were floating underneath the earth in the inverted hull of a ship, the Angel turned inside out, bones sticking out everywhere, teeth embedded in the Eva's arms. Blood hung, imiscible, in the saltywater around us, whose of I'll never know. Needless to say it was pretty spectacular.

We were standing atop a pyramid of shiny material, perfectly shaped, smoothed, made as though by human hands over millenia.

'I know right...' Asuka whispered.

But unfortunately, sod's law dictated that the power went out at that very moment. Four hours later we would be recovered, hauled up onto ship and then released from our little bubble of sexual tension. Until then we waited.

Waited for so long.

And in that time a small thought flickered across from Asuka to I.

_Then what is he thinking in?_

* * *

**0-1-3**

* * *

There was nothing in the room that you wouldn't expect to see in an average hospital, heart rate monitors, drips. Everything under the conceivable sun.

Except for the occupant.

Shinji sat, staring at the wall, wondering what'd happened, to his left lay the countless gifts his friends had since gotten him, he'd been sitting like this for about a day, ever since he'd woken up. Had there not been the heart rate monitor they'd have assumed he'd stopped breathing ages before.

Then...

_Click._

Shinji gasped, his lungs filling with oxygen, then deflating rapidly as the spongey filling took on too much air and the diaphragm involuntarily relaxed, pushing all air out of the space. He rubbed his face, scratching his head, tousling his hair. The light burnt his senses, the coldness made him shiver, and the pain of his injuries stung his very core.

_But it was good._ He was still alive at least, he knew that.

* * *

'The recovery of Unit 02 took approx. Two hours. I just wondered how you felt on the rampage...'

Akagi stood before Gendo, interrogation was not normal to her, and certainly in not such a friendly tone. The massive mausoleum of his office was lit in a typically bloody fashion, bright red etchings catching the light and blinding the occupants.

_Complete psychological overhaul caused by a traumatic circumstance._ She noted.

'It was unfortunate, probably due to having two pilots in the same Eva,' She pursed her lips in concentration, 'probably mental contamination flowing into the Eva. Instead of vice versa.'

'I see...'

'The pilots are fine, I trust?'

'Yus...' He breathed, as if not there, then he shot back up, regaining a menacing posture. 'Yes, absolutely, you are dismissed... Ahem.'

She did a very practiced about turn, and left.

* * *

Daniel looked to his left, the redheaded chick lay in a hospital bed next to his, sleeping it off. To his right lay the other pilot, the one he'd saved by almost killing.

_Stuck in the middle... _He lamented it, _As usual._

* * *

**END**


	4. Propane Tanker

_Hospital food isn't that bad…_

She turned her nose up. Staring at the broth beneath her. Chunks that looked like meat but might not necessarily be that floated about in the gloopy liquid. Occasionally a bubble would surface, popping with a silent 'Klop', her face soon began to sting as small droplets of boiling liquid sprayed onto her face.

_But then again_, _it could be better._

Looking left, looking right, looking all around her, not noticing Daniel's latent awakeness, barely disguised by a terrible fake snore, she poured her broth into his bowl.

Helet out a small smile, making sure she wouldn't see, and chuckled.

_This fucking hospital food's fucking good. Fuck yeah._

He was a very profane thinker.

* * *

**DANNY BOY**

**Chapter Four- Propane Tanker**

* * *

**Three Weeks Pass**

* * *

Geoff had been having a long day.

It had been fairly bad one as well.

His wife had killed herself for no reason, his house had been broken into, and he'd been accused of murder; his truck had broken down an hour from the depot, causing him to lose his job. Not only that but his left leg seemed to be growing colder every minute, to the point that it was shivering.

'Japanese summer my arse.' He chattered, through shaking teeth. 'I can't believe I got dragged into this…'

It was actually a very nice Japanese summer; the sky was a clear, ruby red, the crickets were chirping away happily to themselves. The occasional feral cat would bound out from the forest around them, before dodging back in to be eaten by some wild beast. Up ahead of the speeding van a blinding white metropolis stood, supreme and sublime above the forested terrains and mountains around it. Geoff sighed; all of this would have been perfect had it not been for the fact that he'd had a supremely shitty day (and the suspicious black clad man in the back).

'Oi. Just shut it and drive.'

Geoff nodded. What his captor could do he could only guess, and he'd rather not have to. Besides, he couldn't help but swoon at the delightful British accent he was putting on.

'Y-yes sir.'

'Good man.'

Geoff gulped. The prospect of him getting out of this alive was growing smaller and smaller with each of his captor's ragged breaths.

* * *

'_So _I was thinking…'

_God… does this chick ever shut up?_

'Hey. Hey. Listen. Listen to me.'

Daniel sighed and drooped. Wilting as the blood drained from anywhere she would be able to cut. They'd been let out from hospital the day before, and of course as a result of him being Daniel he'd simply followed the other two to some apartment on the outskirts of Tokyo-3. Where, finding the neighbor's residence to be empty, he'd set up shop.

Some would call it squatting; he called it extended borrowing of a residential area with no prior permission and a blatant disregard for any owners of the property forthwith.

'What.'

'If Kaji-'

_Here we go again._

His ears blocked up. Instead he observed the scenery; for instance the smoldering black tarmac to his left, which as he stared sent up lots and lots of really fucking small heat waves in the heat; the pigeon rocking its head back and forth to the sound of some inaudible music. The roadkill, lying on its back, guts sprayed out across half the stree…

_Ew._

He barely heard the van pulling up in front of him, barely saw Geoff terrified at the wheel. But he did see the doors slamming open, he heard perfectly the silent muffle of black fabric, and the swish as a needle came down with ample precision into a vein on the side of his neck.

'Ouch?' He sighed.

'Go Geoff! Go!'

The van soon disappeared into the horizon.

'What the fuck?'

He stumbled briefly, feeling for his own pulse, as blood began to dribble from his neck down onto his shoulders. He shuddered, feeling the weight shift onto his knees.

He didn't feel the ground however, as he slammed down onto it, eyes wide and staring, chest shuddering.

* * *

_So uh…_

He shifted his weight. The amount of female attention was intoxicating.

_You come here often?_

There was a barely suppressed _chuckly _thing from the other corner of the room.

_I live here dummy._

_Really? Y'all live in a building?_

_Uh…_ She cocked her head; fourteen separate alarms went off. _Yeah._

_Hm. _He sighed, as a hundred odd men went to reconnect the severed tubing, _how boring. I used to live in the forest._

_Really? That must have been interesting_.

There was silence.

_I ate people._

_Gross._

* * *

Geoff looked into the back seat, it was empty.

'Looks like I'll live to see another day then.' He chuckled.

To be fair, if he hadn't drove his car off of a bridge not five minutes later, he might've. But poor Geoff never did live to see another day.

* * *

At least he didn't have to go to court.

_Ha ha._

* * *

'_Ugh…'_

_Daniel lay, sprawled on a rather large, rather unremarkable sea of greyness. It was rather remarkable that he could come across such an unremarkably boring place, remarkably the remarkable remark he might have remarked about this unremarkable place is that it was rather remarkable._

'_Jesus.'_

_Barely shifting his head from the ground, he stared at his hands; black and shimmering in the light (or was it dark?). He cast a shadow onto the ground beneath him, and it did not catch in any of the small nooks all over it. Was it shadow? Was this even ground? Again he shifted, pushing up, thrusting his body from the ground so he could see, all around him was an empty black crevasse. Showering him in blindness. Suddenly he felt a change, and he was falling. The air rushing by his airs was muffled, and the walls shimmered and flickered through his flight, as though he was underwater._

_Such was his sensation of drowning. Drowning in a pool of boiling oil. Drowning as the oil was rushing down his throat and into his lungs, filling him with heat and torment. He coughed, sucking in air as the grey walls of the chasm shifted from grey to black, and he continued to fall._

_There was another shift, and he slammed into a black barrier._

'I get the feeling-' He paused in his speech to hack out a cough, 'this could go on a while.'

'_Quick!'_

_There was a sudden change, a shudder as the world snapped into focus._

It was grey, a single grey landscape, more featured than before. The sky was thickened and blackened by a sheet of ash, the lands flattened by something unknown, but dimpled by craters. All around Daniel stood a set of ruins, standing tall, scraping the cloud layer. The only upward protrusion he could spy for miles. Gradually the ruins faded into focus, and their true shape was seen.

There was a large block in the middle, spiraling up into the heavens, crackles of lightning shooting outwards. Daniel stepped closer, and the column shifted into a swirling tower of ash.

'Jesus-'

'Quick!'

'_Huh-'_

He whirled.

'_Jesus-' _

_Someone stood before him. Looming._

_His name he knew, but he bit his tongue for fear of taking it in vein._

'_Oh man.'_

_As he stared, the empty, blank face shifted slowly into a grin, splitting through the middle, spraying fibrous flesh and flecks of blood down onto Daniel._

_It let out a low hiss._

'_Oh… man…'_

_Daniel yawned, his eyes fizzling out of focus, before he fell back into the grey soil._

* * *

_Pure. Black. Nothing.  
_

_Then-_

Below him, the pale blue dot gleamed, like a dust particle in a cosmic vacuum cleaner. Even if one strained one could not witness the event he witnessed. As he saw it through his eyes a small sparkle rose up from the ground. Millions perished. Daniel laughed; he was the cleanser, cleansing the planet of sin and ill being.

'_Huh.'_

_Daniel looked down, Daniel looked up, and the two locked gazes for a minute moment before the world flickered into blackness once more. Leaving just the two Daniels staring across at each other._

_A stage light flicked on, and they continued to stare._

_He saw slowly a wide grin spread across Daniel 2's face, until the lights flickered, and all that remained was the grin._

_Blackness._

_Consciousness._

* * *

'So, what if he doesn't make it out alive?'

'Dunno.' Sighed the good doctor, pouring over the monitors. She stared through the thin veil of glass into the adjoining room, in which Daniel slept. Silently she counted the steps from her chair to the door, and then counted how long she would have to run before she made it out. 'We might not even want that to happen.'

'What do you-?'

Misato never finished the question, as the bottle blonde stood up from her desk, settling her weight upon the smooth steel surface. She wavered, before staggering out the door.

'Frigid bitch.'

* * *

_Daniel awoke._

_He was back in the black void, but a more decayed, old void, falling apart it would seem, letting in streams of light. Daniel sighed as the light began to consume him; he was tired._

_Oh so tired._

* * *

'Mate.'

Daniel rocked back in his creaky brown easy chair, to his left the old drunkard sat, ignoring the bustle of the bar as men came home from work, before going to their families from there. The bar maid stepped from table to table through the tired woodwork of the building, taking orders by the dozen while the dozen were being quickly consumed. Daniel stared at the empty glass in his hand, he briefly mused how it might feel to be an empty glass, before realising many of the men in the bar probably knew.

'Yeah mate.' He grunted back at the old wino.

'Remember this mate.'

Daniel nodded, observing the crumpled up handkerchief on the small table before him, stained red with wine. Before averting his gaze to the old door hung on the wall, unhinged and unwanted, it probably used to cover some old leak, and they just never took it down, he suspected greatly this was the case before resting his eyes back on the old man.

'Sometimes, we're the only blind person in a crowd, but remember always,'

Daniel nodded.

'Seeing is deceiving.'

The words began to repeat, swishing over and over again until the ground began to shake. The glass shattered to the floor and the handkerchief startled to ripple. Over on the wall the door creaked slightly, before falling.

* * *

Daniel stared at the room around him, a steel door lay, ripped off of its hinges in front of him, a bloodied bandage hung from his arm, and shattered glass was sprawled across the floor, water was everywhere.

The room was a white washed one, clean and immaculate, at the most it measure forty square feet. The monitors on the nearest wall were flat lining, he observed the electrodes for those same monitors spread out beneath a hospital bed, whose sheets had been severely ruffled.

To his right light filtered in through polished windows, and to his right a large mirror stood, embedded into the wall.

Daniel took a moment to check himself out, noting the haggard appearance, saggy eyes, emaciated appearance, and thin mouth.

'Holy shit man.' He picked up a sponge off of the trolley next to him and wiped his face down, relaxing as warm water seeped into dehydrated pores. He washed his hair as best he could, leaving it with a nice rugged class, before turning on his appetite. At least a weeks worth of meals sat uneaten on the bedside table.

And so he gorged, gorging and gorging until he couldn't gorge anymore.

He then fell, and then fell again, this time into sleep.

* * *

'So Asuka-'

'Look, I don't know what happened.' She snapped, interrupting the purple haired lass. 'There was a van and then he collapsed.'

Misato sighed, she'd heard the story over and over again, each time the same, with a van, and then Daniel fainting. She herself wanted to believe it, but unfortunately the circumstances and yaddah yaddah yaddah blahdy blah blah all that jazz.

'Well I'm sorry Asuka,' She sighed, lifting her chin so their eyes met briefly, 'we're going to have to lock you away…'

The tension was building in the small air-conditioned cell; the crickets had stopped their chirping, now only silence rang off of the tiled walls; The clouds shifted, obscuring the sun. Still the tension built up as the two NERV staff sat in silence.

There was a ruffle.

Misato stood up, casting a shadow over Asuka, with her back facing the shuttered window. She stepped away to the door, locking it behind her as she left.

A few moments later Asuka let out a scream.

She had been in Japan for less than a month at this point.

* * *

'What's happening to me man?'

Daniel could only stare at the floor, watching as it drifted in and out of focus, a dialysis machine clacked noisily to his right. To his left stood the good doctor. He shifted his gaze to the tubes filled with his own blood, then to the bottle blonde, eyes pleading. She sighed, leaning back on her desk, cocking her head to look down at him. He looked familiar, she noted, but from where she did not know.

'No idea,'

The machine bleeped, as the tubes emptied and the valves clamped shut. Daniel fidgeted, his vision clearing and his feeling returning.

'Ack.' He coughed, waiting for the tubes to be removed. 'Fuck me then.'

With this he stood up, and left the room.

* * *

That night I stayed with Shinji and Misato, I asked briefly where Asuka was but was only met with a silent shake of the head, I knew instantly something was wrong, so I tried several more times over that same night but each time was met with the same reaction. Every time she shook her head a look of disappointment, intense disappointment, crossed her face, and her eyes shifted away from mine.

I mean, she could have just told me.

I just remember staring out the window of what she said was Asuka's room that night, and thinking to myself.

_What the hell._

What the hell? Where was she? Where is she?

* * *

_Where is she?_

It was not longing, merely curiosity that sparked the thought in his mind. He turned to the desk, swiveling on his chair, switching on the lamp. He stared, doing nothing, just staring, at the wall.

'What a boring country this is.'

**END**


	5. A Turn Of Events

What a… what a boring country.

_Daniel chuckled under his breath, the world below him was swirling as he stood, suspended in the air, hanging by paper-thin threads of self-belief from a sky of deceit. He was floating not twenty metres above the ground, but even from here he could see every detail in the surprised looks on the people's faces, every wrinkle, every minute fold. They read like a book, all saying why._

_Why me._

_Why them? Why not?_

_Daniel looked up towards the horizon. It had been two hours already._

Where are they?

_He gritted his teeth. Until on the horizon a giant's silhouette came into view._

_And the memories came flooding back._

* * *

**DANNY BOY**

**Chapter Five- A Turn of Events**

* * *

Daniel was in much the same position when morning came, sitting at the desk staring into space, watching the wall for any signs of suspicious activity. Misato peaked into the room, whispered silently 'School,' then popped out once more. Daniel got up, and walked out. His heart was pounding as he crossed the threshold out of the apartment, he felt nauseous, as though all the perfume and make up in the room had drugged him silly. He stumbled briefly, before continuing his clumsy walk to the elevators.

To say it was a nice morning would be an understatement. It was a bloody beautiful one. The sun was shining in a typical sunshine manner, creating all kinds of havoc with the ecosystem. This was momentarily interrupted as he walked into the upper doors to the elevator, and he found to his slight satisfaction that a gentle breeze had kicked up, cooling Daniel as he walked out of the elevator on the bottom floor. The birds were singing for once, and the crickets chirping. Daniel's mind was singing to itself.

He felt like shit, to say anything, his head hurt, he was tired, hungry, and distraught. _Why the fuck did I not sleep last night_. He mused. _Well I wasn't tired then._ He chuckled, 'good point,' Arguments with himself happened to be his favourite pass time, because he always won.

He briefly closed his eyes, imagining himself falling as newly forming eddies swirled around him. He opened his eyes.

_Blackness._

Only momentary, he blinked and it was gone, replaced by the normal surroundings. A car passed by, kicking up dust from the bubbling tarmac. He shook his head and walked on.

It was a short walk to school; soon enough he found himself descending the black escalator from the overpass. This time of the morning the smell of sweat and shame was heavy around this part of the city. He did his best not to notice it, however hard that was, as this particular morning every smell was getting to him, reaching up his nostrils and tearing out his brain a little bit. Thus he found his effort to be futile a short while after. Soon enough he was sneezing, his nose red as he found his preselected desk amongst the endless others, of course, his was the only one that had a D carved happily into it.

'Jesus fuck malarkey,' he swore, collapsing onto the wooden chair. The classroom was almost empty, just the shelving, the floor, him, and the yellow walls. He then spent the rest of his time sneezing. Barely noticing the blue haired girl in the corner staring at him, a look of malice written in her red eyes.

He'd seen her before, didn't really know her, and so had just ignored her. This morning was no different, so he _continued_ to ignore her.

'Could you stop.'

As though a medicine, the words stopped his sneezing and he turned. It was in this moment he realized that she either hadn't talked in three weeks or she had a really quiet voice. Both of which looked like viable options at this point.

'Sorry.' He blurted. He wasn't.

The room was plunged into an awkward silence, which failed to abate for the remainder of the hour, until the rest of class shuffled in.

* * *

The school day passed by quickly, interrupted by lunch and study hall as usual. Now Shinji and Daniel slipped quietly into the top floor apartment belonging to the raven-haired lady.

Soon enough the TV was on and Daniel was off, switched to his own channel. Sipping from a mug of tea and sighing deeply.

The evening may have passed quickly, he didn't know, all he knew was the flickering in the corner of the room, the flickering that Shinji did not see. The same flickering which turned quickly into a fire, and then into an inferno. Daniel found himself staring at the room as it burned within the hour.

'Holy shit dude.' He mumbled. 'Holy shit. Shinji! Misato!'

'What?' came the muffled reply.

'The room's on fire!'

'What!?' There was a light pattering, and Misato, half dressed, hair in tatters, ran into the room, slippers pattering over the tiles in a manner not unlike the paws of a dog running over gravel, it was a comic moment which brought Daniel to laughter.

'Oh, ha ha, very funny.' Misato turned, and left. Leaving Daniel alone with the fire clawing at his skin, he screamed through the laughter, but found it just warped into a distorted chuckling. His flesh burnt away, and his bones crumbled before his eyes as the laughter filled his head…

_Hot, too hot._

Daniel threw off the covers, wincing slightly as the cold air pinched at his flesh. So it had turned out sleeping was just as tiring as waking.

'Bugger.'

It would be another sleepless night.

Daniel rubbed his forehead, he felt like a stack of paper inches from the shredder. Slowly being drawn towards his undoing.

'Why do I even bother,' he sighed. 'Seriously. Why?'

* * *

**Four days later; NERV underground facility; Interrogation Chamber.**

**Inside the chamber sits Daniel and Ritsuko, staring each other down from across a steel table. He has just finished explaining the turn of events that had occurred during his blackout; needless to say the good doctor is confused.**

**Ritsuko:** Let me get this straight. You saw yourself, and someone else.

**Daniel:** Yes.

**R:** And there were explosions.

**D:** Yes.

**R:** And another world?

**D: **Yes.

**There is a lengthy pause, as the doctor rechecks through all her notes, this takes about five minutes, soon enough she reseats her glasses and looks up at Daniel, eyes bored.**

**R**: Well. I'm drawing no correlations here to any mental conditions brought about by any known chemical **She pauses, clicking her tongue and her pen** However, I'm concerned about the recurring nature of the dream, and your inability to escape even though you realized that you were dreaming. On the record I'm just noting this down as an abnormal dream, however I would advise not sleeping for long periods of time. Perhaps you should set an alarm.

**Daniel nods.**

**R: **What about before you fainted?

**At this point the recording pauses; there is clearly discomfort on Daniel's face. He sighs, and continues.**

**D: **It was a normal day, sunny, hot, crickets chirping, and as normal I was just igno- **He pauses, unsure of his next words, his heavy breathing is of note, as it continues from here on throughout the video **Talking to Asuka, when suddenly there was this sound. **Again he pauses **A ruffling and then a swish, then I collapsed.

**Ritsuko notes this down, before checking through her notes. Satisfied, she stands up and opens the door for Daniel to leave. Daniel notes this gesture, and leaves accordingly.**

**R (Aside): **Strange child.

**She moves to the camera, and turns it off; accordingly, this is the point at which the recording ends.**

* * *

Daniel sighed, checking his watch. It was five past four. Also known as the third hour he'd been waiting for the elevator to take him to the surface. At this point it was more a joke than a delay. The small station reeked of artificial cleanliness, the steel tracks seemed to be the culmination of this odour, as he'd found out while falling onto the tracks barely ten minutes beforehand. Fortunately the ledge was only a mere four feet at best above the tracks and he had climbed up without much difficulty, save for a shortening of breath.

'C'mon dude.' He muttered, barely getting in enough air through his clogged nostrils to squeeze out the words. 'Screw this cold man.' He wheezed, before coughing, an action that deprived him of oxygen for a good thirty seconds as he gasped and guttered in the lonely concrete station.

There was a buzz, the only sound in the station, and the loudspeaker crackled into life.

_Would Daniel… Daniel… What's his last name would pilot Daniel please report to the main holding cage. That is all._

Daniel stood up.

_Looks like I won't be taking the train after all._

* * *

This turned out to be a rather short sighted comment, as he then found himself taking a separate carriage to the cage. Once there he sniffed, trying to breathe, a task which was slowly becoming less possible. HE looked around the familiar green room, still alien, but familiar. He noted a fresh dent in the steel surrounding him, and a new chip in the concrete. He also noted that Evangelion Unit 01 was nowhere to be seen.

'Daniel!'

He turned; Misato was hunched over a control panel in the other side of the room. 'Get over here!'

The concrete underneath thudded dully as he ran across it. Soon enough he was standing over Misato.

'What?'

'Well?'

'Well…?'

'Well get in.'

_Ah. Right._

He turned to the left, and leapt clumsily across the red straight to land with a bang on the shoulder of his Eva. It groaned slightly as he stopped to catch his breath. Quickly enough he ran to the open entry plug and got in, the LCL filled, and he was left with the familiar sensation that he was a teacup.

'So why am I in here.'

Hence came an audible sigh over the comm.

'_Because there's an Angel out there. Shinji's been fighting alone for the past three hours, where have you been?'_

'There was an Angel attack?'

More sighing.

'_Yes, now get up there.'_

* * *

_The silhouette clambered lazily through the haze of dust, slowly making its way towards Daniel, who then sneezed, the dust was finally getting to him. Like some godly cue with this sneeze the giant broke through the barrier of dust. _

_But it was not the giant Daniel had expected._

_It grinned madly at him, eyes red with anger, and he knew instantly, if he did not run, he was likely to die._

HR

Daniel stared across the somewhat eerily calm city. The massive central section was nowhere to be seen, as usual on this occasion, however, neither was any Angel, Eva, or battle. It was just Daniel and the sun glimmering off of his Eva's armour.

'Are you guys serious.' He moaned.

'_What?'_

'There ain't no Angel.'

'_What!? We have it on camera right now. Feeding it through to you.'_

The feed popped up, it was shot at an awkward angle, with nothing visible in the video but two identical sets of feet. Instantly he realised his mistake.

He turned one hundred and eighty degrees, and saw not thirty metres away the battle.

'Ah.'

* * *

The inside of the entry plug was silent, a mere tunnel vision focused solely on fighting the Angel. Everything else was blanked, every one of his senses dulled in defence.

It was quite honestly a rather boring image, a lone boy sitting silently, staring silently, watching silently, in silence, trying to get an edge over an opponent who was every time his equal.

Shinji sighed, momentarily loosening his grip on the controls. His suit was worn almost through on the hands, and the flesh showing through the translucent layer was red and raw, leaking minute amounts of blood.

This was his mistake. The Angel lifted him off of his feet, and Unit 01 came crashing down onto the blistering tarmac road beneath.

The purple face cracked open, letting out a small groan. No more was heard as Shinji struggled to get up, to no avail; he was pinned.

'_Daniel! Do something.'_

Daniel just stared, he hadn't been prepared for this. He was unsettled. His Eva was empty. He couldn't feel anything; just an empty feeling in his gut. The Angel's face turned to his, a blank, pale, fleshy face, a plague doctors mask etched into it in white.

Daniel screamed, he couldn't help it, he just couldn't, he pounded on his controls, screaming until his Eva moved, of its own accord, and tore the head off of the beast, crushing it, before moving down and splitting the body through the core.

Daniel continued to scream as the hailstorm of an Angel's death surrounded him, searing the armour of his Eva, cracking the city's streets.

* * *

_He ran, zipping as fast as his short legs would carry him, trying to escape the gaping maw of the silhouette that followed him, trying to escape the death that would follow. For an age they must have run, all the time the two red orbs shining out through the chase as day turned to night and the realm of the demon was entered. Miles were crossed in an instant as the two continued their game of cat and mouse. A low cackling laughter ensued, until a large hand wrapped around Daniel, and he was caught, like a fly in a trap._

_He stared up at the demon, eyes wide and pleading, the red eyes burst into flames, and it lent closer, breathing sour fumes onto him. His nostrils flared and he sneezed._

* * *

The scene was something out of a nightmare; the screen was white, burnt out by the explosion of the Angel. All they could hear from the screeching air currents was Daniel's screaming, and the low moan of Eva Unit 01.

'What's happening!?' Misato clasped her hands tighter over her ears, waiting for a reply, as memories of the second impact invaded her mind.

'Not sure.' Hyuga looked down at his monitors, they showed exactly what they should have. _So why the screaming? _'Maybe a suit malfunction?'

Ritsuko shook her head. She was standing closest to the screen out of the staff; it was in her nature to inspect everything to the nth degree.

'That wouldn't affect anything. I mean not in this manner.'

Much of the war room was in silence; steel panels normally littered with chip wrappers and coffee mugs were free; floors normally pounding with hundreds of feet were flat and still, only the speakers crackled and fizzed, before the screen eventually faded, in total it must have been about thirty seconds, but it had felt like an age; an age that had taken its toll on everybody.

And still the screaming cut through the air.

'Would someone shut that boy up?' This time it was Gendo who piped up.

'Yes sir.'

The feed was cut and silence descended once more.

* * *

Daniel stared out of the Eva, his throat had caught on something, and his screaming had ceased. Instead he stared out of his prison, bringing its hands up to meet his eyes.

The face of the Angel was still intact and in his clasp, he stared, and it brought him to tears.

Split across the middle of the thing was a grin, wide and toothy.

Before him a handkerchief materialized, he uttered a brief thank you and snatched it out of the LCL, quickly using it to wipe away the water streaming down his face

The Eva powered down, a gesture of mercy.

* * *

_So. No questions?_

_No, no, I do it all the time._

_Serious?_

_Yeah. They don't really give two craps._

A light flickered on inside the grey and purple domes, quickly flicking to rest on a yellow bauble in the corner of the room.

_So who's the new dude._

_Oh, her, she doesn't really talk much._

Oh, okay.

* * *

Daniel stared up at the wall. His fingers clicked together slowly as he thought about the day's events. The sheets around him were warm, snug, he wasn't hot. It was perfect.

_Looks like I might get some sleep tonight after all._

**END**


End file.
